One Strand
by Angel Shio
Summary: RK71123, once known as Tai Dao, is an eleven year old living under the terror of the Garrotein, a brutal house of Dark Faeries. For killing someone to survive, she's been made a slave. Placed in 100,382 ANPD, she will face terrors... and learn of an great


One Strand  
  
By Angel Shio  
  
Come on, Tai, nothing's holding you back...  
~*~*~*~*~  
Fire!  
~*~*~*~*~  
On your own, no one can help; no one can save you...  
~*~*~*~*~  
I need NO ONE!  
  
It's gone. My freedom, my individuality... Dead.  
  
Who said that life isn't fair?  
  
Tough news, it is. I kill someone, a trivial someone, someone that sits in a palace for ages...  
  
And, TADA!, I'm stuck in a palace. As a slave.  
  
Yup, that's me. RK76123. Really. I have no name.  
  
R, because I faced Reality.  
  
K, becuase I'm a Killer.  
  
7, because the boy was seven years old.  
  
11, because that's how old I am.  
  
1, because I have one master.  
  
2 because there are two left in my family.  
  
3, because I'm in Slave Auction 3.  
  
Imagine that. All my work is at their orders. The slave auctioneers, that is. It'd be better to die than to live here. Ah, well, I'm just RK76123. Just a girl, only fit for manual/house-related labour. JT985362, a boy, is a juvenile thief. Hence the JT at the start. He's a range slave, fit for anything.  
  
EA84506, and Elder Assassins' Guildsman, is like me. In what way? Only manual/house-related labour. But, he's going to the furnace soon.  
  
You heard me right. FURN-ACE. They kill us when we are too old to work. By sending a man to come and claims the old womyn and men, the sick and the dying, the blind and the deaf, as well as the deformed to the fires at the core. I'll die just like the rest, in agony.  
  
But, there's nothing I can do about it. Neopia Prime is a very mixed- up planet. Not unlike Geidi Prime from the Dune novels my mother once told me about, the rulers are cruel and view us as resources to be used. And, thrown away when we can't do anything more, like a toy that's run out of batteries, and there's a shortage at the warehouse.  
  
We're so far from Neopia I, that the Faeries can't even give us santuary. I've been told tales about them- about crystalline crowns and feather-light wings, clothes light but durable, and eyes like stars- but hey, none of that happens here. Our crowns are made of thorns and prickly thistle, our wings have been clipped, our clothes are patched, stained, and frayed, and our eyes hold nothing but fear and a haunted look that tells of too much death and destruction.  
  
I have red hair, but it looks black from too long working the furnaces. My eyes used to be a clear, bright green, like a sun-lit emerald in the endless red-purple bowl of the sky. Now, they're brown, because of colour disks that the rulers ordered all slaves to wear.  
  
My name has long since been forgotten. Even I can't remember it. My pets were Carefree Kenshin, Sari Kenshin, and Vic Kenshin, though. I envy my parents. They remembered their names. I know because I was working at the execution gallows when they were being interrogated. Their names were Marlin (my father) and Jhare (My mother). They were executed quietly, in a beheading group. My other family wasn't so lucky.  
  
My elder brother, Fijian, was killed when the Garrotein (the elite military forces) reached a gauntleted hand through his lung and pulled out his heart.  
  
My younger brother, Jarhen, was brutally eliminated by introduction of cyanide into him system, forcing him to cough up blood until he died.  
  
My aunt Felicity was burned alive.  
  
My uncle Rlad was beaten to death.  
  
My twin sister, Carolinia, probably knew my name- too bad she's dead.  
  
My remaining family member, who is my sister, Jacki, may be arrested for traitorous acts soon, to join the slaves like me.  
  
I have no future, no name, no neopets, no will to live. Most of us die before now. I must be special, to survive on Neopia Prime for so long.  
  
If I make it to my fourteenth birthday, and I'm unowned, I'll be free.  
  
I hope I last that long.  
  
Welcome to life on Neopia Prime, fifth planet of the Canoius system, fourth planet discovered by the space flight Harrowed. It's the 100,382nd year of Neopian existence.  
  
Welcome to my life. 


End file.
